About Me

I am Professor of Sociology of Education Leadership at the Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester, England. My research interests include the relationship between constructions of school leadership, headteachers' and principals' agency and education reform, particularly relating to privatisation. I co-convene the Critical Education Leadership and Policy research and scholarship group at the University of Manchester and I co-convene the Critical Education Policy and Leadership Studies (CEPaLs) Research Interest Group through BELMAS. I am Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Critical Studies in Education, with Associate Professors Jessica Gerrard and Glenn Savage.

About me

After graduating from the University of Leeds in French and Spanish, I taught English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in London and Paris for two years. I then spent eleven years teaching in London secondary schools; first as a teacher of French and Spanish, then as Head of Modern Foreign Languages and finally as Assistant Headteacher.

I moved to what is now the Manchester Institute of Education in 2010 to complete a Master's degree in Educational Leadership and School Improvement. This degree, and subsequently a studentship from the ESRC, gave me a fantastic opportunity to pursue my ambition of studying for a PhD in an area—school-type diversification and its leadership—that I find fascinating and which affects everyone working in English schools today.

I won three awards for my doctoral work, supervised by Professor Helen Gunter:

• American Educational Research Association Division A 2016 Outstanding Dissertation Award

• British Educational Research Association 2016 Doctoral Thesis Award

• British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society Thesis Award.

In 2017, I was awarded a British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award for my project exploring privatisation across Europe.

I have held posts at MIE including Programme Director for the MA Educational Leadership and MA Education (International) programmes. I am presently Research Co-ordinator for MIE.

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